The term “object” refers herein to any file, content, or other electronic or printed item for which metadata can be embedded or otherwise associated. In the past, metadata has been embedded in certain types of objects to provide assertions about the object's data properties. However, such metadata has often been incomplete, particularly for compound objects.
The term “compound object” refers herein to any object which is built out of one or more other objects (i.e., ingredients) and/or pieces of other objects. Many objects are made through a process of assembling other objects (ingredients), together with artistic or creative activity that mixes these together. As examples, a slide show may be constructed using photographs, music, timing and interactivity; a magazine may be constructed from stories, fonts, layout, illustrations, photographs; and a movie may be constructed by combining sound tracks, footage, graphics and special effects. A compound object may be electronic, such an electronic file, or may be a print object, such as a brochure.
The term “ingredient” refers herein to any content or other object incorporated in or used in any other way in a compound object or its development. An ingredient can be virtually any type of content, including, but not limited to, text, images, graphics, documents, data, animation, applications, video, audio, and files, among other things.
With respect to metadata, potentially useful information is often not adequately associated with compound objects. For example, information relating to an object's “ingredients” is often not captured and not included in the object's metadata. Information from the ingredients' own metadata and information about how such ingredients are used may be lost as objects are changed or otherwise manipulated. Using ingredient metadata is also problematic because the assertions within an ingredient's own metadata may or may not apply to the combined object in which it is used. Additional issues may also arise when ingredients are used more than once.
Tracking information in temporal objects presents additional issues. A “temporal” object is any object that has a “time” dimension—including, but not limited to, a video stream, an audio stream, a sequence of events, an interactive object, or an object having any other time component. For example, a video may include a reference pinpointing a particular video time segment. However, when the video-related object is changed or combined with another object, the reference may not apply, since the new object may not have the same time base. Compound objects can combine temporal with non-temporal objects.